Damascus/Boring Observer newspaper closes after 26 years

Damascus and Boring citizens received their final publication of the local Observer newspaper in May. The free paper arrived in mailboxes at the beginning of each month.

Tom Lichty, editor and publisher, said the Observer's beginning can be traced to 1970. It was first published by a man named Shawn Hudelson, who printed more than just the paper. When he ran short of cash, he printed his own. In 1971 the Secret Service found more than $100,000 in his frozen food locker. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison.

In 1984, Lichty began his version of the Observer. He employed local writers who covered local politics, history, civic events, schools and real estate, as well as "Auntie Gus," a gossip columnist who thought she knew everything.

Lichty wrote in an e-mail that his favorite part of publishing the paper was "writing, of course, and doing layout.

"It was incredibly rewarding to see the final pages of a new issue come together," he wrote. "Rarely did I not feel a smidgen of pride."